this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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So, my an online american friend said"My mom didn't want to vaccine vax cuzs autism". Is he joking? I know many people say thing like that but i thought they all were joking?

In my country which is a third world country no one believe shit like that even my Grand mother who is illiterate and religious don't believe thing like that and knows the benefit of vaccine.

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[–] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 110 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (21 children)

Most people? No, definitely not. Most Americans get vaccinated. More people than you would hope? Yeah, absolutely.

There's so many people here who have crazy views on health and wellness generally. Juice cleanses. Chiropractic. Homeopathy. Fad diets. Faith healing. I think some of it is because people can't afford real healthcare, but most of it is anti-intellectualism and propaganda.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 5 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Yep. There was a solid base pre-Covid that could be built off of as COVID was shown to be as bad as it was.

I also feel like a lot of vaccine rejection was built on having to justify that COVID wasn't as bad as people were saying it was.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 1 points 9 hours ago

US pharmaceutical companies are straight up evil and we all know it. It's no wonder why more and more people are skeptical about their products, e en when they are shown to be beneficial to everyone.

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[–] 1984@lemmy.today 27 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

Most of the western world have free healthcare. But this is an America view so I understand.

A friend of mine went to hospital like 5 times to check out his belly with various advanced machines and the final bill was equivalent to like 50 dollars. The taxi rides to the hospital cost him more than that. :)

I think its amazing.

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[–] subiacOSB@lemmy.ml 5 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah this is a true thing. This person that knows me asked me if vaccines caused my autism.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Yes, they tend to happen about the same age, so can appear correlated when they’re not

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 24 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

No there's really people that stupid. It's tragic.

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 9 points 14 hours ago

And these fuckfaces act like they’re enlightened.

[–] MammyWhammy@lemmy.ml 4 points 14 hours ago

And it's a growing trend.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 74 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (3 children)

The belief is real (but the claim is not).

A doctor claimed a certain ingredient in vaccines was causing autism, while also trying to sell his own version without that ingredient. A massive conflict of interest and he lost his medical licence over it.

But damage was done and people freaked out over it. In fact, the ingredient was removed in order to alleviate peoples concerns but by that point the idea vaccines=autism had taken off and it was hard to stop that spread of misinformation. Especially since the dude doubled down on the stance.

See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield

[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 46 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Andrew Wakefield, Jenny McCarthy, and RFK Jr. have so caused so much needless death and suffering. Fucking monsters.

[–] vividspecter@lemm.ee 22 points 21 hours ago

And Oprah for platforming these grifters (among many others).

[–] Denjin@lemmings.world 13 points 19 hours ago

Andrew Wakefield knowingly and intentionally misrepresented his scientific findings to further his own career ahead of the interests of humanity as a whole. Thomas Midgley Jr is the only person I'd put ahead of him in terms of the damage he's done to the world.

[–] blackbelt352@lemmy.world 25 points 22 hours ago

Just to add onto this, because Wakefield's conflict of interest is one facet of the stupidity of the entire thing. Check out H.Bomberguy's video about the whole thing, the poorly done experiment, the inconclusive research, the bone marrow autism cure guy, and how we went from "there is maybe possibly some interaction between some chemical in the vsccine and some as of yet unknown and undescribed connection between the brain and gut this chemical that may or may not have some impact on autism more research is needed," to "vaccines are 100% the cause of autism"

[–] IamAnonymous@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

There are people around the world who don’t believe in it. It’s not specific to Americans. You are basing this off one person on both the ends.

[–] bennel@lemmy.world 47 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Your friend is not joking. There's an epidemic of disinformation washing across the USA.

And thanks to the disinformation around vaccines, there are also several other types epidemics breaking out...

[–] Arbiter@lemmy.world 24 points 21 hours ago

It’s so bad Texas currently has a measles outbreak.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 26 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (5 children)

I have very religious family that repeatedly told my 90 year old grandma not to get vaccinated in the depths of COVID-19. I have other, not-at-all religious family that works as a nurse… And is anti vaccine.

It’s like a parody.

…But it is no joke. I can answer questions about them if you want.


If you’re wondering why, it’s because many Americans are inundated in really scary social media and TV. That part of my family is constantly on Facebook, watching Fox, doomscrolling whatever. Even their church preaches some really, uh, interesting things now.

It’s this way because there’s a lot of profiteering. For example, the current head of the FBI is apparently selling and promoting some kind of “brave anti vaccine” health merchandise. The current head of the US health department made a lot of money and fame off vaccine skepticism. And their church clergy is crooked in ways I can’t even publicly discuss.

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[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 8 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

The rumor started with a few celebrities with their new age theories (from the same era that brought you "rock and roll comes from the devil", "Anne Frank didn't write her diaries", and "Elvis is alive but Paul McCartney is dead") and then it just kind of picked up because America isn't very pro-disability and gets alienated easily. Fortunately it has finally just about died down, but once in a while someone will bring it up.

[–] gencha@lemm.ee 20 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Someone like the secretary of health or the president, as it currently stands

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[–] KickMeElmo@sopuli.xyz 22 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

No, it's not a joke, some people are that fucking stupid.

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[–] Remix9@fedia.io 10 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

There's too many stupid people in power; idiocracy is becoming real

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[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 17 points 22 hours ago

There is a small, idiotic group that thinks that. Unfortunately that group is growing.

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